Foreign Language
by Orion Hunts
Summary: Growing up on Gallifrey meant that the Doctor never learned English, it was only that the TARDIS translator made everything understandable for him and his companions. It isn't until the translator breaks that his companions realize he doesn't actually speak English. -OneShot-


Strange characters had randomly started dancing in his line of vision, because for some reason the TARDIS just wasn't translating anything at the current moment.

"Work, God dammit!" He muttered in the ancient tongue of Gallifrey, hitting the reports he had been reading

His current and former companions all stared at him with odd curiosity, they were in the middle of researching the strange disappearances of children when the Doctor began acting weird. Sure, working alongside UNIT and Torchwood had never been the Doctors go-to plan, but never before had he started talking gibberish and acting as if this were the hardest thing in the world.

"Uh, Doc, you okay?" Jack asked hesitantly. It was odd for him, Martha, and Mickey to even be with the Doctors Eleventh incarnation, much less his two new companions, Amy and Rory, but it wasn't completely out of the ordinary considering everything. But this sudden outburst was weird, considering the fact that it appeared to be in a strange new language.

The Doctor looked up and shook his head no. How was one supposed to say, _"Hey, I may talk in English all the time, but I actually cannot speak the language! That's the translator translating everything, and now said translator won't translate what needs to be translated!"_ Especially since he can't say that to them in their own language, but rather one completely foreign to them.

Not only that, but all the papers he was going over were now unreadable for him, he couldn't even do his job now...

So, forgetting everything he had been reading over, the Doctor ran back to the Tardis to see what was wrong. And sure enough he found nothing out of the ordinary.

All the companions ran after him, Martha saying that he probably was ill, while Rory disagreed by saying how he showed no symptoms of any illness.

"Doctor, slow down! What's going on, any leads?" Mickey called put, panting slightly from the sudden sprint, totally oblivious to the Doctor rambling in an odd language. The Doctor, again, ignored them. All things said now sounded wrong, jumbled. Maybe it was just him hearing wrong? So instead he decided to test this theory with the with the ever-so casual, "I think I'm going insane!"

Everyone running suddenly halted to a rough stop, not believing what they'd just heard. Instead of his usual English, it came out in some strange, alien tongue.

"Doctor, was that... Gallifreyan?" Amy asked, getting down to business. It was a logical assumption, what else would he speak other than the English he always spoke? By this point they'd all realized something was wrong, because while it was easy to assume the strange alien understood and spoke English, it now appeared him to not understand a lick of it.

Bursting into the control room, he immediately went over to the translator box.

"Does this need fixing already? I'd just replaced it!" The Doctor mumbled to himself, turning the contraption over and over in his hands.

"What's that box thing? Why are there circles on it?" Amy asked, striding over to the Doctor and his strange 'toy'. The ancient man looked over at her and shook his head. Until he fixed this, talking to them would be impossible. So he used all his supreme English word vocabulary and uttered out the two single words, "No English."

The companions were deathly silent for a moment more, before all coming to the same conclusion.

"You don't speak English? But... you always do... That makes no sense at all!" Jack barked out, unable to contain laughter from escaping his lips. Micky joined him in laughing obnoxiously, while the girls and Rory rolled their eyes at the two immature adults.

"As much as it pains me to say this, Jack's right you always speak it." Martha agreed. All that talking went to waste though because, as just announced, the Doctor had no idea what they were saying. So he ignored the rambling of his friends and pulled out his sonic.

"This'll be a temporary solution, I do need an _entire_ new box, it seems..." The Doctor announced, after fixing the translator. The circles quickly reverted back to _Time Translator_ along with everything the Doctor said went back to English.

"Now, how long have people been going missing? You didn't say." The Doctor asked, finally remembering the research from earlier, addressing the question to Martha.

"Hold up, you just lay the fact that you don't speak _English_ and expect to go straight back to work? No, you raggedy Doctor. Spill." Amy said, dismissing the Doctors question.

"It was uncustom to learn any Earthing language back on Gallifrey; you humans were considered quite barbaric, you know..." The Doctor spoke with an amused voice. "It's disgraceful for me to even be in your presence actually." He couldn't help but laugh at his after-thought.

"Seriously? You Time Lords look just like us!" Micky remarked, his expression showing just how unbelievable he thought it all was.

"Yes because we _evolved_ from humans. Too much exposer to the Time Vortex advanced us further than humans will ever be."

"But we're _barbaric_? That's a bit unfair!" Martha fumed, throwing her hands in the air. The Doctor never answered, he just simply smiled and started walking towards the door.

"But you love humans, why not learn their language?" Amy pressed on, following him to the door.

"Non of your languages were ever offered at the Academy; I know practically every language to know! Just not your language."

"That's just weird." She muttered, tailing the Doctor back to the lab. "If you want, Rory and I could teach you English."

"While that's nice of you to offer, but the translator usually works well enough." He replied with a slight smile. "But onward, we must save dying children!"

And so the companions continued on their way, though only now did they realize just how alien their friend truly was.

 **Thanks for reading the quick little one-shot! I've never actually written anything other than Percy Jackson fanfictions, so this was quite different for me...**

 **I hope you enjoyed reading this, so please review!**


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